Awards and Appointments

December 2010

UCL's BiCE team (Biocatalysis-Chemistry-Engineering interface programme) have won the
Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Innovation and Excellence Award for
Bioprocessing.

The team, who focus on novel
biocatalytic manufacturing routes to speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals,
also received the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2010 Rita and John Cornforth
Award in June for studies at the Chemistry-Biology interface. The principals of
BiCE span three UCL Faculties and include Gary Lye, Paul Dalby, Frank
Baganz (UCL Biochemical Engineering), Helen Hailes (UCL Chemistry)
and John Ward (UCL Structural and Molecular Biology).

November 2010

Awards, appointments, elections and honours

UCL’s campus building in Adelaide, South Australia – the Torrens Building – has won two architectural awards: A Silver Medal in the built environment category and the Laminex Award, which was for the best project.

Professor Michael Batty (UCL CASA) has been awarded the William Alonso Prize of the Regional Science Association for his book Cities and Complexity (MIT Press, 2005). This prize is awarded periodically for the most innovative book in regional science and urban economics every five years.

Andy Dawson (UCL Information Studies) has been elected to serve as a Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Councillor until 2013.

Professor Sir Alan Wilson (UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) has been elected to the Council of the Royal Society, and been awarded an honorary degree from King’s College London.

Professor Anne Johnson (UCL Institute for Global Health) has been appointed as a member of the Board of Governors of the Wellcome Trust.

Professor Hugh Clout (UCL Geography) and Professor Chris Rapley (UCL Earth Sciences) have been elected to membership of the Academia Europaea (The Academy of Europe).

Professor Peter Sammonds (Director of the UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction) has been appointed as the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Strategic Advisor on Increasing Resilience to Natural Hazards in Earthquake-prone and Volcanic Regions programme.

Three investigators from UCL Population Health have been awarded prestigious NIHR Applied Programme Grants in the latest funding round:

Dr Elizabeth Murray (UCL Primary Care & Population Health) for a computer–based self–management programme for people with diabetes.

Dr David Osborn (UCL Department of Mental Health Sciences) for The PRIMROSE study (Prediction & management of cardiovascular risk for people with severe mental illnesses: research programme & trial in primary care).

Professor Rosalind Raine (RUCL Department of Epidemiology & Public Health) for the ASCEND Project. This programme will identify and evaluate strategies to reduce the social gradient in the delivery of bowel cancer screening within the NHS.

UCL awards and appointments

Professor Isenberg has been appointed as the Arthritis Research Campaign’s (ARC) Diamond Jubilee Professor of Rheumatology at UCL.

Professor Cheryl Thomas (UCL Laws) has been appointed to a Chair of Judicial Studies.

Prof Mark Girolami (UCL Statistical Science) has been appointed to a Chair of Statistics.

Mr Nigel Waugh has been appointed as the new Director of HR at UCL. He is currently HR Director at the University of Melbourne.

The following appointments as Head of Department have been made:

Head of Division of Biosciences in the Faculty of Life Sciences: Professor John Carroll reappointed from 1 January 2011 for 2 years.

Head of Department, Electronic and Electrical Engineering: Professor Alwyn Seeds reappointed from 1 October 2010 to 31 August 2016

Head of Division of Infection and Immunity: Professor Arne Akbar reappointed from 1 April 2011 to 31 August 2014

Acting Associate Dean, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences: Professor Gabriella Vigliocco appointed from 1 October 2010 to 31 August 2011

Head of Department, Science and Technology Studies: Dr Joe Cain appointed from 1 September 2011 to 31 August 2016

Head of School of Slavonic and East European Studies: Dr Robin Aizlewood reappointed from 1 October 2011 to 31 August 2014

The RIBA has announced its President’s Awards for Research 2010, which reward and encourage outstanding research in architecture. The Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis was awarded to Victoria Perry (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture) for her thesis Slavery, Sugar and the Sublime. The study looks particularly at ways in which large country estates in the north and west of Britain, assembled relatively quickly through new wealth, are totally disengaged from the income that supports them, unlike traditional agricultural estates.

The International Academy of Astronautics has awarded the 2010 Laurel for Team Achievement to the Cluster and Double Star teams. Cluster is a four satellite mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere and Double Star was a two satellite complementary mission which has now ended with the re–entry of the satellites. Professor Andrew Fazakerley (UCL Space and Climate Physics) led the instrument teams on both missions.

Professor Paul Burgess (UCL Cognitive Neuroscience) has been appointed as president of the BPS (British Psychological Society).

UCL awards and appointments

Professor Graham Hart has been appointed Head of the Division of Population Health with effect from 1 October 2010.

Professor Jon French has been appointed Head of Geography with effect from 1 September 2011.

Appointments to established chairs:

Professor Tariq Enver, Stem Cell Biology

Professor Valery Smyshlaev, Applied Mathematics

Professor Bruce Swinyard, Astrophysics

Professor Mark Harman, Computer Science

Professor Michael Pitt, Facility Management Innovation

Dr John Tasioulas, Quain Professor of Jurisprudence

Professor William Shaw, Mathematics and Computation of Risk

September 2010

Awards, appointments, elections and honours

Professor Stuart Rosen has received The TS Littler lectureship. It is a biennial prize, awarded to a member of BSA, who has made a significant academic contribution to the field of audiology.

Professor Valerie Isham (UCL Statistical Science) will become President of the Royal Statistical Society from January 2011 for a period of two years. The list of past presidents includes such well–known figures as Sir David Cox, Sir John Kingman, Sir Claus Moser and Lord (Harold) Wilson.

Dr Mark Lythgoe (UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging) has been awarded the Davies Medal for 'a significant contribution to imaging science' by The Royal Photographic Society, which was presented at an awards ceremony at The Royal Society earlier this month.

Professor Charles Rodeck has received the the Eardley Holland Medal from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. This is awarded once every five years to a Member or Fellow of the RCOG in recognition of outstanding achievement in practice and/or research in obstetrics and gynaecology.

Dr David Carmichael (UCL Institute of Neurology) won the first Sir Peter Mansfield Prize for technical developments in the field of Magnetic Resonance and Biology at the British Chapter of the ISMRM.

Professor Sofia Olhede (UCL Statistical Science) has been awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Leadership Fellowship. The fellowships, which provide up to five years of funding, are a direct investment in Britain’s most talented researchers.

UCL awards and appointments

Professor Mike Spyer (UCl Biosciences) has been appointed as acting chairman of NHS London.

Professor Jeffrey Jowell (UCL Laws) has been appointed founder director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, established in honour of Lord Bingham. The Centre is within the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and will do research into, and promote discussion about, the rule of law in the UK and internationally.

August 2010

UCL awards and appointments

Professor Deenan Pillay has been appointed as the new Director of the UCLH/UCL NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre. Professor Pillay is Professor of Virology/Hon Consultant, and Head of the Research Department of Infection at UCL.

July 2010

Awards, appointments, elections and honours

Dr Claire Colomb (UCL Bartlett) has been awarded a Marie Curie Intra–European Fellowship for Career Development for a research project entitled ‘Transboundary territorial cooperation, policy learning and the Europeanisation of urban and spatial planning policies in the Mediterranean area’.

Dr Matthew Kauer (UCL Physics and Astronomy) has been awarded the 2010 Institute of Physics award for the best astroparticle physics thesis in the UK.

Dr Quentin Stevens (UCL Bartlett) has been granted a prestigious Future Fellowship by the Australian Research Council.

Three UCL academics have taken major awards at this year’s Royal Geographical Society’s Medals and Awards, which recognise outstanding achievement in research and fieldwork, teaching and public engagement:

The Busk Medal has been won by Professor Ann Varley (UCL Geography) for field research in Mexico.

The Victoria Medal has been won by Professor Rick Battarbee FRS (UCL Geography) for leadership and research in environmental change.

The Cuthbert Peek Award has been won by Dr Jerome Lewis (UCL Anthropology) for the innovative use of Geographical Information Science in empowering indigenous communities.

Mr Chris Hallas (UCL Registry) has been elected to the Chair of the Association of University Administrators (AUA) for two years. AUA is the professional association for leaders, managers and administrators working in Higher Education.

UCL’s Thames Discovery Programme picked up a prize at the British Archaeological Awards 2010, winning the award for ‘Best–Representation–of–Archaeology–in–the–Media’.

Professor David Colquhoun (UCL Biosciences) has won the 2010 HealthWatch annual award. The award is presented to someone who has made significant steps either in medical research or in improving the public’s understanding of health issues.

Professor Henry Woudhuysen (UCL English Language and Literature) and Professor Juliet Mitchell (UCL Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology) have been elected as fellows of the British Academy, the UK’s national body for the humanities and social sciences.Professor Guy Laroque (UCL Economics) has been elected as a corresponding fellow.

Dr Mark Lythgoe (UCL Institute for Child Health) has been awarded the Davies Medal by The Royal Photographic Society for his significant contribution to the field of Imaging Science.

Professor Stephen Shennan (UCL Institute of Archaeology) has been awarded the Rivers Memorial Medal 2010 by the Royal Anthropological Institute (UK).

Professor Richard Blundell (UCL Economics) has been elected as President of the Royal Economics Society for 2010 to 2013 and has also been awarded the 2010 CES Prize in Economics.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot (UCL Epidemiology and Public Health and Director, UCL International Institute for Society and Health) has been elected to the Presidency of the British Medical Association.

Dr Paul Ayris, (UCL Library Services) has been elected as President of LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries). The association has 400 members from across Europe.

Edward Zhang, Jan Laufer, Barbara Pedley and Paul Beard (UCL Medical Physics) have been awarded the Roberts annual prize for the best paper published in PMB (Physics in Medicine and Biology) during the previous year. The team won the prize for their paper on photoacoustic tomography: ‘In vivo high resolution 3D photoacoustic imaging of superficial vascular anatomy’.

The UCL Ear Institute and the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital have won a clean sweep of Fellowships at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. All four surgical trainees who applied were funded. Their research projects, all in the fields of regenerative medicine, nanotechnology and transplantation sciences, will commence in October 2010.

Professor Chris Rapley (UCL Earth Sciences) has been awarded an honorary DSc from the University of East Anglia for his services to climate science.

Professor Steve Bramwell (UCL Physics & Astronomy and the London Centre for Nanotechnology) won the Holweck medal and prize for his pioneering work on ‘magnetricity’, the term for magnetic charges that behave and interact just like electric charges in some materials.

Professor Tom Duke (UCL Physics & Astronomy and the London Centre for Nanotechnology) won the Franklin medal and prize for ‘the application of physical principles to the development of elegant molecular sorting devices, for providing new insights into the organising principles of cells and for his primary contributions to a new generation of theories of how the inner ear works’.

Professor Gaetana Laricchia (Head of the Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Positron Physics group in UCL Physics & Astronomy) won the Thomson medal and prize for her ‘contributions to the development of the world’s only positronium beam and its use to probe the properties of atoms and molecules’.

Professor Sir Michael Pepper (UCL Electrical and Electrionic Engineering and the London Centre for Nanotechnology) won the Business and Innovation medal of the Institute of Physics for ‘translating advances in semiconductor physics into the commercial arena’.

Dr Andrea Sella(UCL Chemistry) has had his EPSRC senior media fellowship renewed for a further two years.

The Prime Minister has appointed ofLord (David) Young of Graffham (UCL alumnus and former chair of the UCL Council) as his advisor on the reform of health and safety law in Britain.

Professor Graham Holder and Professor Anthony Moore (UCL Institute of Opthalmology) have been awarded a prestigious Alcon Research Institute (ARI) prize for their ‘outstanding contributions in the field of vision research’.

Dr Bill Stephenson (UCL Mathematics) has been elected as Leader of Harrow Council.

Professor Jonathan Knowles (UCL Eastman Dental Institute) has received the Biocompatibles Endowed Award. The award recognises a significant contribution to Biomaterials Science with particular emphasis on the clinical and/or industrial application of the recipient’s work.

May 2010

Awards, appointments, elections and honours

Professor Ofer Lahav (UCL Physics and Astronomy) was elected a Vice–President of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the chair of its International Committee. In March he was also appointed the sole chair of the Science Committee of the international Dark Energy Survey (DES), after serving as a co–chair in recent years, in which role he is coordinating the work of over 100 scientists from 5 countries.

Professor Imre Barany (UCL Mathematics) has been elected as a Fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Science.

Professor Geoff Burnstock (UCL Division of Biosciences) has been given the 2010 Gaddum Memorial Award of the British Pharmacological Society. The award is made every two years for important contributions in the field of pharmacology or a related subject.

Professors Mohan Edirisinghe and Eleanor Stride (UCL Mechanical Engineering) have been awarded the 2010 Materials Science Venture Prize for their proposal ‘Novel Production of Bubbles and Capsules using Electrohydrodynamic Devices’.

Professor Mark Tewdwr–Jones (UCL Bartlett School of Planning) has been awarded a competitive Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the University of Western Sydney starting in August 2010.

Professor David Lowenthal (UCL Geography) has been awarded the biennial Forbes Prize for his contributions to conservation and preservation, by the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, its highest honour.

Professor Jane Fenoulhet (UCL Dutch), has been made an ‘Officier in de Orde van Oranje–Nassau’ (Officer in the Order of Oranje–Nassau) for her outstanding contribution to knowledge and understanding of Dutch language and literature and to society, an award bestowed in Queen Beatrix’s birthday honours list.

The Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2010 ‘Rita and John Cornforth Award’ has been made to the multidisciplinary UCL BiCE programme that spans the UCL departments of Biochemical Engineering, Chemistry and the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology.

Professor Steven Bramwell (UCL Physics and Astronomy) has been awarded the Holweck medal and prize for his work in magnetism, spin ice, spin currents, and monopole–like spin excitations.

Dr Christian Ruegg (UCL Physics and Astronomy) has been awarded the 2010 Nicholas Kurti European Science Prize for his pioneering experimental work on a number of prototypical magnetic model materials.

Professor Yvo Desmedt (UCL Computer Science) has been awarded the Fellowship of the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR). IACR is a non–profit scientific organization whose purpose is to further research in cryptology and related fields.

Professor Adrian Furnham (UCL Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology), Professor Susan Michie (UCL Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology) and Professor Graham Scambler (UCL Infection and Population Health): elected as new Academicians of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Dr Margaret Mayston (UCL Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology): named Australian Woman of the Year in the UK 2010. Dr Mayston is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the research department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, and she holds an honorary Senior Lectureship at the UCL Institute of Child Health where she is doing research using kinematics in the Cognitive Neuroscience Unit.

Dimitris Sarantaridis (UCL Chemistry): Beloe Fellowship from the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers for his work on developing a novel device for the measurement of concentrations of airborne particulates.

Professor Keith Ball (UCL Mathematics): appointed as Scientific Director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Edinburgh.

Professor Chris Frith (UCL Institute of Neurology): won the 2009 Fyssen International Prize for distinguished research in the areas supported by the Fyssen Foundation such as ethology, paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, psychology, epistemology, logic and the neurosciences.

Sir John Dyson: apppointed to the Supreme Court. Lord Justice Dyson is a Distinguished Judicial Visitor to the UCL Faculty of Laws and has for many years been an active participant and supporter, alongside Lady Jacqueline Dyson who is a longstanding member of the UCL Laws Faculty and the Honorary Secretary to the Faculty’s alumni group, the Bentham Association.

UCL awards and appointments

Professor Albert Weale: appointed to the Chair of Politics, Public Policy and International Relations from 1 January 2010

Professor David Balding: appointed to the Chair of Statistical Genetics from 1 October 2009

Dr George Weiszaecker: appointed to a Readership in Experimental Economics from 1 January 2010

Dr Nigel Balmer: appointed to a Readership in Law and Social Statistics from 1 January 2010

Dr Andrew Nevins: appointed to a Readership in Phonology from 5 January 2010

UCL awards and appointments

Professor Phil Meredith: appointed Head of Earth Sciences from 1 September 2010

Professor John Mullan: appointed Head of English Language and Literature from 1 September 2011

Dr Susan Collins: appointed Head of UCL Slade School from 1 September 2010

Professor Alan Smith: reappointed Head of Space and Climate Physics from 1 August 2010

JANUARY 2010

Awards, appointments, elections and honours

Professor Anthony Finkelstein (UCL Computer Sciences): a special award conferred by the International Conference on Software Engineering.

Professor David Shanks (UCL Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences): a Mid–Career Award from the Experimental Psychology Society recognising ‘a distinguished research record over a substantial period’. Professor Shanks has also been elected to the Academy of Social Sciences.

Dr Barbara Ercolano (UCL Physics & Astronomy): the 2010 Fowler Prize for ‘individuals who have made a particularly noteworthy contribution to the astronomical and geophysical sciences at an early stage of their research career’.